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Who Identified Beadfoed's Manuscript? 



By John Ward Dean. 



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UN r. .'. u Jri A i-^G 5 

N.E. Hist. Crenl. 50-, 



Gov. Bra(1ford''s Manuscript History of Plymouth Plantation and its Transmission 
to our Times. By Justin VVinsor, Corresponding Secretary Massachusetts His- 
torical Society Private Edition, Seventy-Five Copies. Cambridge : John Wil- 
son and Son, University Press. 1881. 8vo. pp. 18. 

In the review of this pamphlet in the April number, I omitted to notice Mr. Win- 
sor's reference to the claim that Mr. Barry derived from Mr. Samuel G. Drake the 
idea that the " MS. History of the Plantation at Plymouth," quoted by Bishop Wii- 
berfbrce, was Bradford's lost work. As 1 myself many years ago expressed an 
opinion that Mr Drake was the first person to show that the quotations were from 
Bradf(jrd"s history, I will briefly give my reasons for doing so. I had been in- 
formed on authority which I could not doubt, that Mr. Barry called with the book on 
Mr. Drake, showed him the quotations and asked him what he thought of them. 
Mr. Drake promptly replied that certain portions, which he pointed out, were the 
exact words of Bradford as preserved by xMorton or Prince, and that other parts 
were new matter; and he at once said that the manuscript must be either Brad- 
ford's history or a work containing quotations from it. Mr. Barry could not be 
made to .say whether he thought Mr. Drake's conjecture a plaui-ible one. All 
he would say was that there was something new there. This information I had 
from Messrs. Frederic Kidder and James S Loring, both now living, who were 
present on the occasion ; and also from Mr. Drake himself. 1 afterwards 
stated these facts in a communication signed *' Iota," in the Boston Evening 
Transcript, July 17, 1856, wiiich article was reprinted in the Register, vol. x. 
page 354. Mr. Loring read the article at the time, and assured me that my state- 
ments were correct. Mr. Kidder, who in 1856 resided in New York, not long after 
confirmed my statements, as he has since done. The readiness with which Mr. 
Drake detected that the quotations were from Bradford, shows his familiarity with 
early New England writers and his critical sagacity ; but his acquaintances need 
no evidence of this. 

I called at Mr. Drake's soon after the occurrence, and Mr. Frederic Kidder, who 
was there, asked me if I knew that it had been discovered wliere Bradford's manu- 
script was. Mr. Drake checked him and said that tliey were not sure. Well, Mr. 
Kidder replied, we are almost sure, to which Mr. Drake assented. I was then told 
about Mr. B:irry's bringing the book to Mr. Drake and the opinion given him. The 
impression I obtained at the time was that Mr. Barry had come directly with the 
book from Mr. Thornton's oiBce, whicli was not far distant. To aid in deciding 
this question, some years after I asked of Mr. Slieppard when Mr. Barry left his 
and Mr. Thornton's office, and of Mr. Drake when he came to his book-store. Nei- 
ther remembered tlie exact hour, but both said it was in the latter part of the fore- 
noon, say between ten and twelve o'clock, probably not far from eleven. 

I have recently been furnished with the following extracts from Mr. Drake's dia- 
ry for the year 1855 : 

" Feb. 17, John S. Barry called with a vol. he had got of Thornton, which con- 
tained extracts from a MS., and requested my opinion. I said it was Gov. Brad- 
ford's history, but he would give no opinion." 

Mr. Thornton informed me that he loaned the book to Mr. Barry the morning 
after he bought it, which was on the afternoon of the 14th ; consequently the book 
was loaned on the morning of the 15th. I saw at once, when I read Mr. Drake's 
entry, that unless his date is wrong, I had been mistaken in the idea that Mr. Barry 
went directly to Mr. Drake's place of business. 

Having a doubt whether there might not be a mistake in the date in Mr. Drake's 
diary, I applied to Charles Deane, LL.D., the editor of Bradford's History, to .see if 
I could obtain facts from him bearing upon the subject ; and subsequently I sent 
him a proof of this article. He replied as follows : 

" You tell me that the late Mr. S. G. Drake has recorded in his diary, the date 
'Feb. I7th,' 1855, as the day on which the Rev. J. S. Barry called on him with 
the volume in which passages from Bradford's lost history ■^ere recognized. 



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" I send you a copy of"a memorandum placed in my hands by Mr. Barry, bearing 
DO date, but evidently handed to me about the time when the subject-matter of it 
was discussed. It may be regarded substantially as a contemporaneous record. By 
this I notice that Mr. Barry and Mr. Drake differ by one day, as to the time when 
Mr. Barry called on Mr. Drake with the volume by means of which the identifica- 
tion was made. Mr. Barry says it was ' on Friday morning,' which was the 16th. 
It appears also by his memorandum, that he had on the preceding day, about live 
o'clock in the afternoon, called on Mr. Drake, and announced to him the discovery, 
as he had also in the evening of that day announced it to Dr. Shurtleff, but without 
having, as I infer, in eitlier instance, the volume with him — the examination of the 
volume itself taking place at separate interviews with both these gentlemen on the 
16th. Mr. Drake appears to have made no record in his diary of Mr. Barry's first 
call in the afternoon of Thursday the 15th." 

Mr. Barry^s Memorandum. 
" Thursday Feb. 14 [15th], about 11 o'clock, called at J. W. T.'s, and Mr. Shep- 
pard gave me the package left by Mr. T. Read the book at noon, and then made 
the discovery. Went to Thornton's after dinner, but he not in. Called at Drake's 
on the way home about 5, and named it to him. Saw Dr. S.fhurtleff ] in the eve- 
ning, at a party, and announced to him. Saw Drake on Friday morning, and 
showed him the book. Called at T.'s, but he not in. Went to Dr. S. and satisfied 
him. Called again at T.'s, not in. Then on C. D., &c. [This last call was on 
the 17th. In noting this call I .suppose Mr. Barry did noi think it necessury to in- 
form me of its date. — 0. D.]" 

I omitted in my former notice to give the authority on which I there stated that 
the book was marked as represented in the fac-simile when Mr. Barry borrowed it. 
Before Mr. Thornton's death he placed the book itself in the custody of the New 
England Historic Genealogical Society, and when he put it into my hands he as- 
sured me that all the marks on the pages relating to the FuUhara manuscript were 
made by him before he loaned the book to Mr. Barry. 



[Reprinted with .additions from tlic New England Bibliopolist for JaTiUHry, 1883.] 



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